Culture Bazaar 2013

The sound of African drumming and aroma of Asian food filled the air as hundreds braved the rain to experience Carlisle’s annual Culture Bazaar.

Bal Kumari Limbu, centre left and Pitrasari Limbu, centre right, from Carlisle offer up some Nepalese treats

Organised by Multicultural Carlisle, the fourth annual event brought together different communities from across the city to share their cuisine, music, dance and crafts.

And despite the wet weather yesterday, the corridors of Trinity School were packed with families, all keen to experience the multitude of activities on offer.

Among those demonstrating their traditional cooking were members of the Carlisle’s Nepalese community, who cooked up the traditional delights of selroti and aloo dum, a potato curry.

Tucking into the selroti was 13-year-old Charlotte Knapper, who was attending her first cultural bazaar. She said: “It’s really nice, it’s kind of different and I’ve never tried it before. We’ve been to see some dancing, and that was really good and now we’re going to try some drumming.” Hungry visitors could also sample Kurdish and Malaysian food, while the Northern School of Asian and Oriental Culture brought along their roadshow, Ooy’s Traditonal Thai.

Bollywood and Egyptian dancing workshops and displays pulled in the crowds, while children from Carlisle’s Norman Street School performed songs to a packed hall. Saj Ghafoor, founder of the multicultural society, was delighted with how the event went, although numbers were slightly down on the 3,000 expected, probably due to the bad weather. “I think it’s popular because it’s different and it’s very grass roots – it’s just ordinary people coming together,” she said. “We are just trying to build community cohesion and there’s no better way of doing it than something where there’s no language barriers – it’s about music, food, dance and art. Everybody, no matter what language they speak, no matter what nationality they are or what age group can enjoy it.”

And businesswoman Saj, who owns the HDM Spice Shop in Brook Street, added: “It’s great to see all the different people from different communities engaging with each other. It’s the only way we are ever going to help people to understand what’s going on is to get people mixing. It’s like a big party.”

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk

By Elizabeth Broughton - Monday, 05 July 2010

News & Star